Medieval Manuscripts from the National Library of the Czech Republic

In 2024, the Royal Canonry of the Premonstratensians at Strahov – the Strahov Library enabled the digitisation of the first group of the manuscripts of the collector and mercantilist economist Jan Kryštof Bořek (shelf marks DB I 1–7 and DC I 1–6) from its collections. This is the third redaction of the collection of his documents, which was created from the end of the 1710s (the prefaces to some volumes are dated 1718 and 1719) until the end of the 1720s. The individual volumes contain various reports concerning both the past of the Czech lands and Bořek’s present – they often comprise copies of official documents related to his official and economic activities.

The library of the Premonstratensian Canonry in Nová Říše provided access to another five manuscripts in 2024. Three of them are medieval – two of those come from the Czech lands and the latter one (shelf mark NŘ 14) contains various exegeses, probably by the Hussite preacher Václav of Dráchov; the third medieval codex is a collection of prayers and meditative texts written in the Archdiocese of Cologne (NŘ 69). The modern manuscripts comprise a coloured armorial (NR 88) and the treatise Tristes annuae desertorum Societatis Jesu by the Jesuit János Nádasi (NR 55).

The digitisation of manuscripts from the Military Historical Institute in Prague continued in 2024 with another 28 volumes, which mostly date from the 19th century and were written mainly in the Habsburg Monarchy. The most extensive part consists of the lists and overviews of the deployment of Austrian military units (e.g. shelf marks IIR A 490/1–2 and IIR B 7184/1–2), the treatment of the history of some of them (e.g. IIR C 3482, IIR D 810, IIR F 471, IIR F 532 and IIR F 573) and the lists of their officers (e.g. IIR B 1434 and IIR F 849). The manuscripts also comprise military-training manuals, ceremonial speeches and daily reports.

In 2024, the Regional Museum in Olomouc digitised a manuscript missal of the Olomouc diocese from the last third of the 15th century (shelf mark K-24059). The codex has simply decorated initials. The Canon of the Mass is preceded by a pasted broadside containing a coloured woodcut, probably from southern Germany from after the middle of the 15th century.

The first part of the manuscripts from the National Library of the Czech Republic digitised in 2024 comprises 20 shelf marks, including codices written not only in Latin but also in German (shelf mark XVI) and Czech (a Czech translation of the works of Albertanus of Brescia – shelf mark XVII D 15; Kořeček’s New Testament – shelf mark XVII D 30). In terms of content, it is a set of miscellaneous codices, mostly liturgical manuscripts (Cistercian collection – VI E 17, breviaries – VI E 4a and VI E 4b) and sermons (VI E 6, VII B 13, VII C 16 and VII D 4).

The Royal Collegiate Chapter of Saints Peter and Paul has provided access to an important source on the history of the reconstruction and completion of the Vyšehrad Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul at the turn of the 20th century. The manuscript Ms 001/2024 contains records of income and expenditure related to the reconstruction, but it also provides information on the work carried out and its progress, as well as the associated festivities.

In 2024, the Olomouc Research Library digitised the manuscript M I 11, which dates to the first half of the 15th century. It contains the ascetic-mystical treatise Stimulus amoris , whose text is known from several redactions and was translated into vernacular languages as well.The earliest German translation comes from the 14th century, and the Olomouc manuscript is one of only three known complete copies. Its binding, decorated with blind stamping and metal ornaments, is also medieval; the front lifted paste down is formed by a leaf with a pen-and-ink drawing of the Resurrection of Christ.

In 2024, the Museum of the Jindřichův Hradec Region provided access to a thematically homogeneous collection of seven Czech- and German-language prayer books from the second half of the 18th century and the first half of the 19th century. The German-language codices are handwritten copies of widely printed collections compiled by the Capuchin priest Martin of Cochem. The manuscripts are partly decorated with coloured drawings with floral or architectural motifs; some of them also have small engravings attached.

The books digitized during 2024 from the Slavonic Library date from the 17th and 18th centuries. They originated from regions in present-day Dalmatia, Eastern Europe and Northern Russia. The oldest volume digitized in 2024 was a Cyrillic liturgical book for Lent (Tripesnec alternatively Triodion or Triod, 1608) and is of East European origin (shelf mark T 9774). The marginalia in this book reveal that it was originally located in Subcarpathia, specifically in the village of Velykyi Bereznyi (Ukraine). The following is a copy of the religious poem Mandaljena pokornica (The Penitent Magdalene, 1714) by Ivan Bunić-Vučić (1591–1658), a Croatian Baroque politician and poet (shelf mark T 4161). The 18th century is represented by a story about King Apollonius of Tyre (Povest’ ob Apollonii, korole Tirskom). This is from the A. D. Grigorev’s collection of North Russian manuscripts (shelf mark A 10).

Three modern manuscripts from the collections of the Regional Museum in Teplice were digitised in 2024. The oldest of them (shelf mark MS 21) contains diplomatic reports of the Venetian envoy to Mantua from part of 1629. The manuscript R 2022/36 records church ceremonies for various occasions and was written in the first quarter of the 18th century for Benedict Simon Littwerig, the abbot of the Osek monastery, the vicar general of Bohemian Cistercian monasteries and visitor. The codex MS 29 contains the impressions of Franz Wenzel Tobisch of his journey from Naples to Teplice, which he undertook in 1819–1820 as a tutor to Edmund of Clary-Aldringen.